The Torqued Man

In his debut novel, Mann takes listeners on a grand adventure in Germany during the last few years of the Third Reich. Moral ambiguity, intrigue, double crosses, and deception are ever present, as are humor, mythology, and numerous murders. The story progresses in alternating chapters of the journals of the “the Torqued Man,” Adrian de Groot. The journals begin in the heady days of the Spanish civil war and ultimately are being read by an American OSS agent after World War II. The Torqued Man was an Abwehr agent and handler of Frank Pike, an IRA agent originally recruited by the Nazis from a Spanish prison to assist in their planned invasion of England. Each entry views the same subject from a very different point of view. Pike is charming, gregarious, and secretly plotting to kill Hitler’s personal physician, while de Groot is cool and Teutonic. The story is fascinating, and well-written characters add to the complexity. The narration of John Lee is superb, especially his believable Irish and German accents.